The social order of transnational migration markets

The ‘infrastructural turn’ in labour migration studies has shifted attention away from the experiences of migrants to the role of public authorities and private actors in facilitating migrant mobilities. As part of a broader turn towards studying transnational mobilities rather than immigration and settlement, this research shows that the formalization of transnational labour migration has made mobility both freer and more difficult. In this article, I reinterpret mobility infrastructures from a market sociological perspective. Transnational labour migration, I argue, is more clearly conceptualized as the organized ‘making’ of cross‐border labour markets. Moreover, from a market sociological perspective the construction of cross‐border labour exchanges is at the same time a question of how the uncertainties inherent in market exchanges are coordinated by market actors. In its focus on how exchanges across borders are possible at all, a market sociological perspective makes note of the conflicting interests, power imbalances and uncertainties that must be handled for a social order of transnational migration markets to emerge. An important question concerns whether alternatives to the less regulated neo‐liberal market order that is evident in most migration corridors are possible and under what conditions. With reference to the challenges facing the regulation of cross‐border labour markets, in my conclusion, I map an agenda for future research.     

Making knowledge legitimate: transnational advocacy networks' campaigns against tobacco,infant formula and pharmaceuticals

In this article, we examine three different cases in which health activists lobbied the World Health Organization and its member states to regulate the marketing practices of multinational companies. The campaign against tobacco manufacturers resulted in a binding treaty; the campaign against manufacturers of infant formula resulted in a non‐binding code of conduct; and the campaign against pharmaceutical manufacturers failed. We show that existing arguments regarding the success of global social movements and transnational advocacy networks fail to explain the divergent outcomes in these three cases. Instead, we argue that the effectiveness of global advocacy in these cases depended on the level of perceived legitimacy of the knowledge supporting the advocates' claims and on the prestige of the experts participating in the campaigns.     

HAZARDOUS WASTE DISPOSAL: A WASTE‐FUEL BLENDING APPROACH

The disposal of hazardous wastes creates major economic and environmental problems. One productive use of hazardous wastes is to blend them into fuel, which mitigates damage to the environment by recycling waste into fuel and reducing fossil‐fuel consumption. Operations personnel face a daunting task of efficiently blending hazardous waste into fuel, while simultaneously maintaining environmental regulatory requirements. This research develops a goal‐programming approach to the waste‐fuel‐blending process that considers the diverse objectives of fuel managers. A realworld case study at a cement kiln illustrates the effectiveness of this approach, where the implementation followed principles of team building and quality management.     

Crypto‐coin hierarchies: social contestation in blockchain networks

In this article, I discuss the role of crypto‐coins (CCs) as an explicit response to the 2008 economic crisis. Drawing on networked social movement theory, I outline the tension between blockchain based currencies promoted as horizontal markets of technological innovation and the persistence of hierarchical authority within these networks. By examining the assumptions about authority and regulation that underpin the creation of CCs I argue that the cryptographic responses to the financial crisis understate the persistence of hierarchies in their claims to upset traditional monetary authority. As global networks, blockchain technology faces political challenges from regulators, hegemonic market actors and adherents devoted to particular CCs. Consequently, I draw parallels between CCs and networked social movements to argue that the emergence and proliferation of ‘altcoins’ presents a series of political challenges to the framing of CCs as disruptive technology. The innovative character of CCs relies on tacit and explicit assumptions about politics that social movement theory can help to explain. By examining the altcoins through the concepts of resource mobilization, framing and identity formation, I argue that the dynamics of offline social hierarchies persist and are magnified in the world of CCs.     

The Emotions of Control: A Qualitative Exploration of Environmental Regulation

Processes of control remain central tomanagerial and critical theories of organization, buttheir inherently emotional form has been largelyneglected. The experience and expression of emotions aremore than simply objects and outcomes of control,they also shape its context, processes, andconsequences. Drawing upon observations of interpersonalencounters between environmental regulatory inspectorsand industrial managers in the U.K., an emotionalframing of the dynamics of control is developed. Thispresents emotion as a condition and consequence ofinteracting socioeconomic roles and power structures such as those associated with occupations,gender, and capitalism. It also provides a way ofanalyzing control that is sensitive to its emotionalcharacteristics and may be applied to other, moreconventional control contexts.Requests for reprints should be addressed to either author at School of Management, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, United Kingdom.